Focus on Storage at the Leading Business Technology Conference
Learn about storage applications, storage technologies and storage networks that work together to drive your business.
Storage Conference Sessions
DEEP DIVE - Storage - The Path to Performance When one looks at the main benefits of storage networking people often cite performance. Performance means many things to many people in the IT world. This two hour session identifies just what aspects of performance are and are not critical to the successful deployment of these storage and storage networking technologies. We will look at the different kinds of information flow requirements and how best to map those to storage infrastructures today. We will examine the best place to invest for performance as well as talk about some of the performance "myths" as well. Session topics will include: Performance Elements - What's Important Storage Device & Controller Technology - Performance Enablers Storage Networking: Bit Rate, Bandwidth, Latency & Throuput The Role of iSCSI and Fibre Channel in today's data center Unified Fabric and FCoE Developments
Howard Goldstein has over 30 years' experience in storage, data and telecommunications networking. His background includes positions in technology, management and education with practical technical experience in architecture, design, planning, implementation and operations. His technical focus ranges across various storage network architectures and products including IP storage, iSCSI, SCSI, Serial Attached SCSI, Serial ATA, Fibre Channel, TCP/IP, Gigabit Ethernet, Infiniband, PCI, PCI-X, PCI Express and others. Goldstein holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts and an M.S. in Telecommunications from Pace University. He is a frequent speaker at Interop and Storage Networking World. He founded Howard Goldstein Associates, Inc. an Education & Technology Company offering instructor led training. Visit www.hgai.com. He provides in-depth skills with his technology-specific classes. His job task approach in his Storage Networking Planning, Design, Performance and Troubleshooting classes provides the skill level required to perform specific job roles in the Storage Networking industry today. Howard Goldstein has expertise in many aspects of the human side of technology offering innovative consulting and education services on Professional Vitality and Career Development, Adult Learning, and Presentation Development & Delivery Techniques. Howard believes that content and context delivery is as important as content development and is a master of both. Goldstein is an active member of the Storage Networking Industry Association and serves on the SNIA Education Committee. He has helped develop the SNIA Certification Program as well as other SNIA Education initiatives. He has been active in the publications world as technical editor of Building Storage Networks and Resilient Storage Networks.
Deduplication and Single Instance Storage: Practical Applications for Backups, Archiving, and Primary Storage Deduplication (dedupe) and single instance storage (SIS) are perhaps the hottest topics in the storage industry. EMC just acquired a dedupe startup for over two billion dollars! Meanwhile, all of the leading backup vendors are scrambling to integrate dedupe into their products. But this is just the beginning of a major new technology trend! Dedupe offers benefits not just for backups, but also for cloud storage, archiving, virtual desktops, and even primary storage for high performance production servers and VMs. This session is broken into three parts: 1) The first section discusses the fundamental technology of dedupe, revealing both the shortcomings of current approaches and the opportunities for new solutions. 2) The second section focuses on dedupe for backups. We illustrate different ways to integrate dedupe into backup systems as well as revealing non-dedupe approaches that might deliver similar results at lower costs. 3) Lastly, we describe applications for dedupe and SIS in rich media archives, virtual desktops, and primary storage.
Jacob Farmer is an industry-recognized expert on storage networking and data protection technologies. He has authored numerous papers and is a regular speaker at major industry events such as Storage Networking World, VMWorld, Interop, and the Usenix conferences. Jacob’s no-nonsense, fast paced presentation style has won him many accolades. Most recently Jacob was honored as the top-rated speaker at Storage Networking World, the preeminent conference for the data storage industry. Jacob is a regular lecturer at many of the nation’s leading colleges and universities. Of recent he has given invited talks at institutions such as Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Duke, Harvard, and Yale. Inside the data storage industry, Jacob is best known for having authored best practices for designing and optimizing enterprise backup systems and for his expertise in the marketplace for emerging storage networking technologies. He has served on the advisory boards of many of the most successful storage technology startups, and is well respected in the analyst community. Jacob is a graduate of Yale University.
Application Acceleration from a Data Storage Perspective Data storage is just one element in the application delivery ecosystem, but it turns out that it is often the critical performance bottleneck. A number of new technologies have come out in the recent years to optimize storage performance. This session reviews several of these innovations and explains how some performance-optimization technologies can be easily integrated into the existing storage infrastructure. Topics include spindle aggregation, various storage acceleration devices, application-level QoS techniques, and caching or hot-spotting with solid state disk. Specific attention will be given to accelerating network file systems, MS Exchange, and SQL databases.
Jacob Farmer is an industry-recognized expert on storage networking and data protection technologies. He has authored numerous papers and is a regular speaker at major industry events such as Storage Networking World, VMWorld, Interop, and the Usenix conferences. Jacob’s no-nonsense, fast paced presentation style has won him many accolades. Most recently Jacob was honored as the top-rated speaker at Storage Networking World, the preeminent conference for the data storage industry. Jacob is a regular lecturer at many of the nation’s leading colleges and universities. Of recent he has given invited talks at institutions such as Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Duke, Harvard, and Yale. Inside the data storage industry, Jacob is best known for having authored best practices for designing and optimizing enterprise backup systems and for his expertise in the marketplace for emerging storage networking technologies. He has served on the advisory boards of many of the most successful storage technology startups, and is well respected in the analyst community. Jacob is a graduate of Yale University.
Planning For Server, Storage And Network Convergence
Virtualization is causing the convergence of server, storage, and network platforms. At the same time, fewer CAPEX dollars coupled with rising energy costs is promoting data center managers to incorporate energy efficient and highly utilized IT equipment in the data center. This session will help data center managers understand virtualization’s role in convergence and plan for a more efficient and highly utilized server, storage and network environment.
Doug serves IT Infrastructure & Operations professionals, primarily focusing on green IT, green business, and IT leadership skills. His research helps IT executives successfully approach green IT, determine strategy, and then move from green IT awareness to action. Previously at Forrester, Doug was the global council manager and senior advisor for the Forrester Leadership Boards IT Infrastructure & Operations Council, a best practice community for senior IT executives in $1 billion-plus organizations. In this role, Doug regularly advised clients on Green IT strategy and practices. Additionally, Doug was also an advisor on the Forrester Leadership Boards Enterprise Architecture Council. Prior to Forrester, Doug was a VP of strategy and business development for Red Oxygen, a wireless communications startup, and living and working in Australia and France. In addition, Doug co-created CU Networks, a computer networking and servicing startup serving the students of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Doug holds a B.S. in finance from University of Colorado at Boulder and was awarded the Undergraduate Certificate in Entrepreneurial Excellence.
Paul Congdon is Chief Technology Officer for HP ProCurve and an HP Fellow, one of the elite HP employees recognized as pioneers in their fields. He is responsible for specifying, architecting and designing ProCurve network infrastructure and software products. In his 25 years in the networking industry, he has become widely esteemed as an inventor and leader in driving networking industry standards. Congdon is the Vice Chairman of the IEEE 802.1 committee and Technical Advisor for the IETF RADIUS Extensions Working Group, and his long-time activities with the IEEE 802 standards efforts involved him in the creation of the Ethernet LAN. He is co-inventor of the commonly used TCP checksum offloading, a program for accelerating the networking performance of TCP/IP within servers. He also architected the method of distributing ProCurve software onto multiple processors, enabling ProCurve switch software to scale between low-cost, single-chip solutions and high-end, multi-modular chassis systems. After completing internships with IBM, Congdon joined HP in 1985 as a Software Development Engineer responsible for the creation of networking protocols within HP-UX. He expanded his focus to infrastructure architecture issues and has been involved in the design of a wide range of network devices and technologies, including routers, Layer 2/3/4 switches, iSCSI storage devices, SNA, X.25, FDDI, Ethernet, wireless LANs, virtual LANs, link aggregation and access security protocols, including IEEE 802.1X. Congdon earned Bachelor of Science, magna cum laude, and Master of Science degrees in computer science from California State University, Chico. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of California, Davis. He currently holds ten patents related to the networking industry and has several more in process.
Jon Flower is the vice president of technology at Adaptec, responsible for developing and implementing technologies to expand the company's leadership beyond the data storage I/O market. He leads the Adaptec engineering team at several levels, ranging from product concept development and architectural design, to the development of engineering and test specifications. At Adaptec, Mr. Flower has also served as the chief technology officer (CTO), specializing in new business initiatives, as well as the CTO of the Storage Systems Division at Adaptec. Before joining Adaptec, he was the vice president of architecture at Tricord.
Thomas Scheibe joined Cisco in 1998 and is currently Director for datacenter systems in Cisco’s System Architecture and Strategy Unit. During his time at Cisco he managed Cisco’s transceiver portfolio and worked with customers in the cable and Metro Ethernet service provider space. Thomas represents Cisco on the Board of Directors of the Ethernet Alliance. Prior to Cisco, Thomas worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. Thomas holds a MSEE from Technical University Chemnitz (Germany) and a M.B.A. from Haas School of Business, U.C. Berkeley.
State of the Art Thin Provisioning
The concept of thin provisioning is not new, but the state of the art has advanced, adding awareness between the operating system and storage device for enhanced efficiency. This session introduces the value proposition and concept of thin provisioning, covers the technology of the major thin storage vendors (3PAR, BlueArc, Compellent, Dell, EMC, HDS, HP, IBM, NetApp, Pillar) and operating system integration layers (Symantec, VMware, and T10), and presents novel approaches from Data Robotics, Apple, and cloud storage systems. We will present the pros and cons of these various approaches in the context of enterprise storage management.
The Right Approach to Cloud Storage
Enterprises are now leveraging cloud storage services at a rapid pace and are looking for qualified answers on how using a cloud platform can increase efficiency and ROI simultaneously. The old model of purchasing expensive storage systems or using large amounts of tape are prehistoric, adapting a new approach to storage is necessary in today’s tough economic climate as budgets continue to be slashed and performance upkeep is critical . This session will enable users to learn about the benefits and economies of scale as it relates to developing/implementing a cloud storage solution, a focus will be placed on performance, cost-effectiveness, user experience, and customer service/satisfaction.
Overview and Current Topics in Solid State Storage This session provides introductory material and discussion of solid state storage. A comprehensive overview of the technology, from components to devices to systems is provided, along with an overview of several current topics surrounding the integration, deployment, use and application of solid state storage. The material is intended for those who are not familiar with solid state storage in the enterprise and wish to develop a working understanding of the technology and its usage. Learning Objectives Understand solid state storage technology in its various forms Understand common characteristics and behaviors of solid state storage Understand the benefits of using solid state storage in enterprise applications
Rob Peglar is Vice President, Technology for Xiotech Corporation. A 32-year industry veteran and published author, he leads the shaping of strategic vision, emerging technologies, defining future offering portfolios including business and technology requirements, product planning and industry/customer liaison. He is the Treasurer of the SNIA, serves as Chair of the SNIA Tutorials, as a Board member of the Green Storage Initiative and the Solid State Storage Initiative, and as Secretary/Treasurer of the Blade Systems Alliance. He has extensive experience in storage virtualization, the architecture of large heterogeneous SANs, replication and archiving strategy, disaster avoidance and compliance, information risk management, distributed cluster storage architectures and is a sought-after speaker and panelist at leading storage and networking-related seminars and conferences worldwide. He was one of 30 senior executives worldwide selected for the Network Products 2008 MVP Award. Prior to joining Xiotech in August 2000, Mr. Peglar held key technology specialist and engineering management positions over a ten-year period at StorageTek and at their networking subsidiary, Network Systems Corporation. Prior to StorageTek, he held engineering development and product management positions at Control Data Corporation and its supercomputer division, ETA Systems. Mr. Peglar holds the B.S. degree in Computer Science from Washington University, St. Louis Missouri, and performed graduate work at Washington University’s Sever Institute of Engineering. His research background includes I/O performance analysis, queuing theory, parallel systems architecture and OS design, storage networking protocols, clustering algorithms and virtual systems optimization.
Converged and Virtual I/O – Networking the 21st Century Data Center
By adopting server virtualization we’ve reduced the number of physical servers in the data center but the proliferation of separate storage, data, management and VMotion networks has made the back of our server racks look like an explosion in a spaghetti factory. Now that 10Gigabit Ethernet is widely available several solutions have arisen to consolidate network and storage I/O onto a smaller number of higher bandwidth connections. With consolidated networking users can stop playing the game of one cable, two cable, orange cable, blue cable.
This session will explore the solutions available to server and storage administrators for reducing cable clutter and consolidating network and storage I/O. Ranging from Fibre Channel NPIV and using vLANs to segregate data traffic to cutting edge technologies including Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) and PCIe extension, We’ll look at the technologies, the players, the politics and how users can integrate new technologies into their short and long term planning.
Topics include:
· I/O virtualization for management and security
· The state of FCoE
· End of Row vs. Top of Rack configurations
· External I/O virtualization solutions
· 10Gig Ethernet, CEE, DCB, DCE – Ethernet for the Data Center
Howard Marks is the Founder and Chief Scientist at Networks Are Our Lives, Inc! a Hoboken NJ based networking consultancy. In over 25 years of consulting he has designed and implemented networks, management systems and Internet strategies at organizations including American Express, JP Morgan, Borden Foods, US Tobacco, BBDO Worldwide and Foxwoods Resort Casino. Mr. Marks has been a speaker at industry conferences including Comnet, PC Expo, Neworld+Interop and Microsoft’s TechEd since 1990 on topics including LAN and WAN infrastructure, systems management and web hosting. He is the author of Networking Windows and co-author of Windows NT Unleashed (Sams) along with over 100 articles in publications including PC Magazine, Network Computing and Network World. He is currently the "Backup and Business Continuity" blogger at InformationWeek.com
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Storage Workshops
VT1 - Virtualization Management Day: Optimization, Automation, Storage and Security Once an organization has completed the initial server virtualization/consolidation phase, it becomes clear that the right advanced management tools along with the right policies and processes are required to better monitor, manage, secure, troubleshoot and tune this new virtual infrastructure, to reap the full benefits of operational efficiency and IT agility. IT managers have to sift through the plethora of virtualization management solutions to identify which products are really ready for prime time, and then how to match their particular needs with available solutions. In addition, many shops with traditional Enterprise Systems Management solutions are wondering how new management tools integrate with/utilize what they already have. In addition to operational management, successfully moving towards full virtualization requires optimization and automation of the virtual infrastructure – creating a self-managing compute factory. Add self-service provisioning and a service catalog to the mix and you have a private cloud, which may extend to public/hybrid cloud computing.
Attendees of this workshop will gain:
• Insight into the impact the new virtual infrastructure has on IT and the challenges it creates
• An understanding of the base management functions that come from virtualization vendors as well as the add-on tools available from startups and long time management players
• An understanding of the requirements, options and best practices for managing all the aspects of the virtual infrastructure including
o Virtual machine lifecycle, VM image management and provisioning (IT and self-service based)
o Capacity management across the virtual and physical infrastructure
o Application performance management from the application through the virtual and physical layers
o Root cause analysis and fault monitoring and management
o Data protection, backup, disaster recovery and storage management
o Securing the virtual environment, from switches to trust zones to hypervisor integrated security
• An independent look at the different approaches of virtualization management solutions
• Considerations for choosing and implementing virtualization management solutions
• How virtualization and advanced management capabilities enable cloud computing – how do you get there from here?
• An update on the recent changes and future of virtualization management
• A discussion of various vendor alternatives and experiences moving beyond consolidation to advanced virtualization management and virtualization-enabled cloud computing
You Will Learn
During this workshop, industry analysts and virtualization experts from FOCUS will discuss the challenges that come with the new virtual infrastructure and the move to cloud computing, and the types of solutions available for virtualization management, optimization and automation.
Who Should Attend
This workshop targets IT managers and administrators who are looking to fulfill the full promise of virtualization and the move to cloud computing, especially around improving operational efficiencies, optimization, and automation – improving IT agility while reducing costs.
Barb Goldworm is president and chief analyst of FOCUS (www.focusonsystems.com), a research, analyst and consulting firm focused on systems, software and storage, with an emphasis on virtualization and improving IT agility, TCO and ROI. A frequent keynote speaker, columnist, and author, Barb has spent thirty years in the computer industry, in various technical, marketing, sales, senior management, and industry analyst positions with IBM, Novell, StorageTek, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), and multiple successful startups. In addition to the current virtualization tracks at Interop, Barb also created and chaired Interop's Network Storage Track. She has been one of the top ranked expert speakers at SNW and Data Center Decisions and has been a regular speaker for TechTarget, Ziff-Davis and hundreds of other virtualization events and webcasts. She is also virtualization chair for Blade Systems Insight, and chaired the 2007 Server Blade Summit. Barb also has been a regular expert columnist since the 1990s for publications including Network World, ComputerWorld, TechTarget SearchServerVirtualization and others. She serves on multiple advisory boards and is a frequent judge for awards such as Best of VMworld, and Product of the Year. She has published hundreds of articles, business and technical white papers and market research reports on virtualization, systems, software, storage networking and systems management. She recently published the book, "Blade Servers and Virtualization: Transforming Enterprise Computing While Cutting Costs" (Wiley & Sons), available on Amazon.com. Barb started her career with virtualization in the 1970s with IBM's VM/370, and spent a decade in technical roles as a software developer, systems architect, systems engineer, and software development manager. After another decade in product management, marketing and sales, up through VP of marketing and sales, Barb has spent the last ten years as an analyst, consultant, author and speaker.
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Extending the Lifecycle of Your Storage Area Network - Sponsored by D-Link Storage Area Networks (SANs) are expensive and complex – to implement, manage and grow. Organizations need to understand how they can reduce their capital investment and extend technology lifecycles while supporting critical applications. This session will help you to understand how to easily expand and repurpose your storage resources over an extended lifecycle.
Everything Over 10G Ethernet: Convergence in the Data Center - Sponsored by Aquantia This panel brings together leaders in data center server and switch technologies, storage and virtualization applications to review the rise of 10 Gigabit Ethernet and LAN on Motherboard in the data center. They will debate the impact of ‘everything over 10GE’, unified networks and interconnect advances on virtualization, storage networks, cost control and performance optimization. Is this a convergence whose time has come?
Storage Exhibitors
Click on a column header to re-sort the exhibitor list:
| Company | Booth |
|---|---|
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556 |
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711 |
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1009 |
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1343 |
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953 |
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533 |
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727 |
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1831 |
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1659 |
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2530 |
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2447 |
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2060 |
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527 |
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2342 |
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2143 |
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1643 Reef D |
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1319 |
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759 |
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620 |
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550 |
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1359 |
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1958 |
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2256 |
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611 |
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Surf B |
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635 |
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1121 |
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739 |
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2307 |
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2330 |
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951 |
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850 |
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2231 |
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651 |
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2434 |
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2622 |
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1843 |
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2531 |
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2542 |
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2031 |
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859 |
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643 |
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807 |



















